


chewing gum (or rather, ring pops)

by hellevator_mp3



Series: college and chaos belong together, don't they? [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, but you don't have to read that to understand this!!, just chenji being cute, this is set before of chaos and calamities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-24 22:20:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17712701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellevator_mp3/pseuds/hellevator_mp3
Summary: jisung remembers almost everything about his relationship with chenle - when they went from being just ‘chenle and jisung’ to ‘chenji’ or ‘chensung'.there's just one thing he's not quite clear on - when they went from being 'childhood friends' to being 'the nastiest couple alive', as it was put by a mr. na jaemin





	chewing gum (or rather, ring pops)

**Author's Note:**

> just a quick heads up! this is set before chaos and calamities, and the last scenes are from a few months before the original story begins! there is also a lot of time skipping and cute fluff and idk?? enjoy??

jisung remembers meeting chenle in kindergarten. he remembers stumbling to the playground on his short baby legs, feet unsteady on the rock pathway that jutted from the ground. he remembers stepping over the wooden divider that separated the mulch from the dirt, almost tripping as the tip of his toe caught on the wood. he remembers seeing a head of mousy brown hair pop up from behind the seesaw, watching him with dark eyes glistening with curiosity. he remembers greeting the boy, a flush prominent on his cheeks. he remembers the high tone of the boy who introduced himself as chenle, and remembers asking where chenle was from, and asking to be taught some of the other's native language, the two of them spending half an hour giggling over jisung's horrible pronunciation as chenle tried to play teacher, before their real teacher came to retrieve them at the end of recess. before they were separated, their pinky fingers were locked and they promised to be best friends forever. 

jisung remembers the day that he realized he fell for chenle. it was years after they met, now in the second grade. they were huddled over a comic book at lunch, and jisung happened to glance over as chenle was mouthing an unfamiliar word to himself, racking his brain to find the meaning. chenle had his bottom lip caught between his teeth, worrying away at it gently. jisung caught one of the elder boy's hands in his, bringing him from his thoughts. jisung translated the word as best as he could using what little mandarin he knew. the blinding smile that he got from chenle made the struggle worth it, and when he turned away, jisung remembers laying a hand on his own chest to feel how fast his heart was beating. jisung remembers feeling the butterflies in his stomach at the realization that chenle's hand was still clutched in his own, and the other didn't seem to mind it. 

jisung remembers the the day that he finally confessed, in a way. he had dragged chenle to the park, not letting go until chenle was seated on one of the lowest steps of the jungle gym. he remembers dropping to his knees, pulling out a cherry flavored ring pop, and holding it out to chenle, uttering some stupid one liner that he found on the internet. he remembers third grade chenle eying him suspiciously, dark eyes narrowing as he took in the boy before him. jisung remembers the smile that suddenly emerged, the elder dipping down and kissing him on the cheek, murmuring a 'yes’. jisung remembers walking home hand in hand with chenle, watching as the boy made it safely to the door before walking to his own house, silently celebrating the whole way. 

(of course, jisung also remembers doing some dumb dance and singing ‘ring pop’ afterwards to the tune of some song he heard on the radio, trying to coax chenle into doing the dance with him - the other refused)

jisung remembers one day more than any other. he remembers it being normal, the two of them walking to class together when chenle suddenly stopped in his tracks. he remembers asking what was wrong, wondering if he had said something in the past 24 hours that needed to be addressed. chenle just sighed, quickly soothing jisung’s anxieties with soft reassurances, before dropping the bombshell that would essentially change their entire dynamic. chenle, in all of his fifth grade glory, told jisung that he liked him. like, like-liked him. his face turned a furious red, and jisung could feel the reeling of his stomach at the confession. he remembers running to the bathroom, wondering if what he was feeling was bile rising, or the shock of knowing that his best friend liked him back. he remembers that he had caught up to chenle later that day, grabbed his face between his hands, and kissed him like no one was watching. of course, he remembers being yelled at by a teacher, but they had just laughed and ran off. 

jisung remembers it all, remembers how they went from ‘chenle and jisung’ to ‘chenji’ or ‘chensung’. he remembers how he went from being alone one day, to never being alone again. 

and of course, nothing had changed in the eight years since then. their affection was just shared behind the door of their dorm room, where they had been since the first day of their college experience. however, that’s not where jisung found himself on that fated day. 

instead, he was currently draped over one of the couches in their student lounge on their floor, studying. the problems that he was working on seemed to swim before his eyes, causing a frown to etch itself into his face almost permanently. he rubbed sullenly at his eyes, willing away the frustrated tears that welled up out of nowhere. one slipped past his defenses, leaving a trail running down his face. amongst all of the stress that he had been put under, what with having to get a job as soon as he could and with finals coming up and the amount of work that he had piled up and waiting for him - the dam broke and he finally broke down. luckily enough for him, the lounge was empty, leaving him to let his feelings out in peace before settling back down to study. he gave himself five minutes, no more, no less, to allow himself to break down and build himself back up. after three minutes, the door squeaked open, and he covered his face with sweater covered hands, until he saw that the culprit was chenle, who came bearing a bag that jisung knew for a fact was full of sweets. 

it took no more than five seconds for chenle to see the puffiness of his eyes and hear the unsteadiness of his breath, and no more than seven for him to pad over to the boy with the bright blue hair, pulling him to his chest and allowing him to break in his arms. jisung nuzzled his face closer, hands gripping at the hem of chenle’s shirt as he let it all out, silently counting down and pulling away when he reached zero. 

chenle knew what he was going through, opting to wipe away stray tears instead of questioning him over it, and excitedly showing him the snacks that he bought. with a gasp, chenle nearly flung the bag away from him while clutching an item that jisung couldn’t make out. when chenle dropped to one knee in front of him, jisung eyed him suspiciously, before chenle held out an unwrapped blue raspberry ring pop, and jisung couldn’t stop himself from crying even more at the sight. 

of course, the two of them had talked often of the future, but he never thought that it would come around so quickly. 

only a week later, chenle was sliding a blue band up his ring finger, and jisung was sliding a red one up chenle’s finger. “it’s a promise ring, not an engagement ring. unless you want it to be an engagement ring, then it can be-” chenle had rushed out, before jisung cut him off with a soft kiss. 

“i’m okay with whatever you want it to be.” jisung whispered in reply later that night, as the two of them slipped into a comforting sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to yell at me on [tumblr](https://hellevator-mp3.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/wave_mp3)!


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